Dear Fellow Mortals,
If you missed Part 1 of Think Like a Mortal, you can catch up here.
“You Have Less Time Than You Think” begins in ancient Rome, with a letter from Seneca to a man named Paulinus. Paulinus was responsible for Rome’s grain supply, the serious, necessary work of keeping a city fed.
Seneca doesn’t tell him the work is meaningless. He asks him to notice what it’s costing. A man who keeps careful accounts of Rome’s grain, Seneca suggests, may keep no account at all of his own life.
The School for Mortals
Limits, tensions, and choices shape a finite life. The School for Mortals helps us learn to live well within them. It is available exclusively to Dying Every Day members. If you’re not one, you can become a member, join at 50% off, or, if cost is a barrier, accept a complimentary membership.
You Have Less Time Than You Think
Think Like a Mortal (Part 2)
That’s the thread the chapter follows.
Most of us don’t waste our lives on nothing. We lose them to good things, like work, obligations, and the people we love, without stopping to ask what each one is worth. We talk about time as if it were money we can spend and earn back, but every hour we spend is part of the life we’re living.
Along the way, the chapter draws on St. Augustine, Schopenhauer, and a bit of modern psychology. It looks at why the future always seems roomier than the present, why “not yet” so easily becomes “never,” and why becoming more efficient doesn’t answer the real question.
This isn’t a chapter about productivity, and it isn’t a call to frantic living.
Rest, wandering conversations, and unremarkable afternoons all have their place. It asks for proportion and a question worth carrying into your week: “Is this worth a portion of my life?”
